Baseball regroups, shifts tactics in fantasy league case

The ongoing dispute between Major League Baseball and the fantasy league …

As reported yesterday, District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler has ruled in favor of fantasy league operator CBC Distribution and Marketing, in a case which could have First Amendment implications for the use of sports names and statistics by third parties.

The story begins in an earlier era—one in which MLB licensed 19 fantasy leagues run by other companies. When, in 2005, MLB decided to scale back its licensing program, it left 12 formerly sanctioned firms—including CBC—out in the cold, in favor of pursuing contracts with only the largest fantasy league operators. In response, CBC chose to preemptively sue MLB, in order to guarantee that it could continue to operate using official MLB statistics. Statistics and sports records have been deemed in other court cases to be a matter of public record, and therefore, not copyrightable.

Judge Medler agreed with CBC's arguments and rendered a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff, declaring that the First Amendment applied in the case. A statement was later released by the Major League Baseball Players Association regarding the judgement:

"We are disappointed by the Court's decision yesterday... We expect to appeal the decision, and remain confident that we will prevail in that effort. We continue to believe that the use of the players, without their consent, to create this type of commercial venture is improper."

As expected, MLB plans to file an appeal. However, a subtle shift in language seems to have worked its way into MLB's collective tongue, and may imply the direction MLB plans to go in the future.

"We've agreed that the stats and names are in the public domain," MLB Advanced Media spokesman Gallagher is quoted as saying. "But when you start to use team's logos and other images as CBC did, you need a license, it's that simple."

In light of the ruling, MLB appears to have conceded that CBC has the right to use player names and stats. Instead, it is now the use of team logos that MLB is concerned with. In this area, at least, it seems that MLB may find itself on stronger footing, but that is for the courts to decide.

If this case was only about money, MLB could simply have continued to license the 12 smaller fantasy leagues and reap the income from those contracts. Instead, it appears now that MLB is fighting more for control than anything else. While facts still cannot be copyrighted, MLB will almost certainly be pushing the legal system to broadly interpret the limits of the organization's control over the public aspects of baseball.